System and method for automatic processing of images from an autonomous endoscopic capsule

Abstract

A method and system for processing of images from an autonomous endoscopic capsule includes acquiring a video stream from the endoscopic capsule; detecting repeat frames; removing repeat frames from the video stream; adjusting a speed of play back of the video stream based on a value of possibility of skipping significant frames; detecting anomalies; marking frames with anomalies for further review by a physician; and displaying multiple images on a physician's desktop simultaneously in a chronological order in a form of a matrix.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 368,636, filed on Feb. 8, 2012, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 707,679, filed on Dec. 7, 2012, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.[0002]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61804633, filed on Mar. 23, 2013.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Field of the Invention[0004]The present invention is related to medical endoscopic examination devices, and in particular, to an endoscopic capsule and a method of using it in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.[0005]Description of the Related Art[0006]Capsule endoscopy is a way to record images of the digestive tract for use in medical examination and diagnosis. A typical capsule is a size and a shape of a large pill and contains a miniature camera. After a patient swallows the capsule, the camera takes pictures as it traverses the inside of the gastrointestinal ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides software for analyzing images from an endoscopic capsule. The capsule is swallowed by a patient and moves down their stomach or GI tract, transmitting images to an external recorder. After several hours, the capsule's battery runs down, and the images are then read by a physician and analyzed using a special application on a PC. The invention has advantages over related art methods, including improved accuracy and efficiency in analyzing capsule images.

Problems solved by technology

However, these two types of endoscopy cannot visualize the majority of the middle portion of the gastrointestinal tract, the small intestine.

However, the capsule can be retained in the stomach and / or intestinal tract for a relatively long period of time, as much as 6-12 hours, and waiting for the capsule to reach various areas of interest in the GI tract might require several hours of a physician's time.

Also, review of the images requires a high degree of concentration by the physician, if performed in real time.

This increases the possibility of omissions of certain images during the investigation analysis.

Images